Weekly Newsletter 07_28_08: The Isle of Dawn Approaches

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Updated Fri, Jan 02, 2009 by Dalmarus

The Isle of Dawn Approaches

July 28th, 2008 - By Dalmarus

The Isle of Dawn has been live on the Test Server for a couple weeks now, and when it goes live, get ready for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes to be flooded with more new players than we'll know what to do with. In reality, that probably won't be the case, but I think you can guess what I'm getting at. Just the simple fact that Vanguard will finally have a downloadable trial for players wishing to try the game out will make a huge difference to our overall population numbers. Of that, I have little doubt.

The number one complaint I hear from players wishing to try their hand at gaining glory and riches in the land of Telon is that there isn't a trial for them to test out. With the Isle of Dawn, that request will finally be fulfilled. The Isle of Dawn has a lot of things going for it, and for the most part, I think it's going to be a huge success. There have been an absolute smorgasbord of seemingly minor adjustments made to the way players are introduced to various aspects of the game and their character's abilities, but there are also a few things I worry about with the Isle's arrival.

isle

For a moment, let's forget about how smooth the Isle has been running. While we're at it, let's also ignore the fact that you actually start out in a pretty cool suit of armor on the Isle compared to the way we currently show up in our traditional starting areas wearing nothing more than our hobo hand-me-downs. I'll tell you what. Since we're on a roll forgetting or ignoring things, let's add just one more - the cool artwork for some of the more interesting mobs and areas of the Isle. Alright... have all of that out of your head? Good.

With all those things above being ignored, the thing that really impresses me on the Isle of Dawn is how the development team has made so many amazing changes to the way players are introduced to various game play mechanics without actually changing the feel of anything. I'm not 100% sure that statement can possibly make any sense unless you've taken some time to test out the Isle yourself, but I stand by it. By making some very subtle changes to the general text of your normal starting quests, adding a few phrases in parenthesis, and having more information in the various tutorial-style pop-ups, I'm willing to bet a brand new player will be able to get into the game with far more ease than most currently do. That, and that alone, is to me the greatest accomplishment by the development team in this endeavor - all of which was completed without "dumbing down" anything in the new player experience.

Now despite all my praise for the new player experience on the Isle of Dawn, this doesn't mean I don't have any concerns of my own. My one big worry revolves around Vanguard's greatest strength for me. The sheer openness and opportunity for true exploration is Vanguard's biggest selling point for me. There's no doubt that I have less time to play than a majority of the player base, but after 18 months, there are still areas I have yet to go to. What does worry me with the Isle of Dawn though, is that while playing through, I felt I was being pushed along a particular path more so than we currently have with our starting areas now. It's still farm more open than most games I can think of, but it didn't give me that sense of massive scope that Telon embodies. How do you give new players a more structured beginning without losing that sense of scope though? That's a question I don't have an answer to, so for now, I'm qualifying this concern as "minor" at best.

What do you think? Leave a comment here!

Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Ten Ton Hammer network or staff.